An Analysis of the Impact of Configuration Changes to the Learning Curve for Department of Defense Aircraft Acquisition Programs Substantially Into Production
Abstract
This research is one of the first empirical studies of the impact to the learning curve slope and touch labor hours when production is continuous but a configuration change interrupts the learning process. The analysis discovered the learning curve slope after a configuration change is different from the stable learning curve slope pre-configuration change. The differently configured units were found to be statistically different from one another, which may be due to the unstable slope, given that the labor hours per unit are partially a function of the learning rate. The significant difference between the configurations provides statistical support that the new configuration should not be estimated with the learning curve equation of the prior configuration. The research also discovered the post-configuration slope is always steeper than the stable learning slope. Therefore, estimating the new configuration based on the slope of the units pre-configuration change will result in over-estimation, but an initial estimate with a stable slope and no anticipated changes will under-estimate the production hours once a change is required. The steeper slope decreased with each subsequent unit until the slope stabilized.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 24, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1054100
Entities
People
- Candice M Honious
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology